A person does not incur suspicion unless he has done the thing; and if he has not done it wholly he has done it partly; and if he has not done it partly, he has a mind to do it; and if he has not had a mind to do it, he has seen others doing it and enjoyed.

RABBI REUBEN BEN ESTROBILE, "Mo'ed Katan", Talmud

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Suspicion is a weed that keeps growing big and bigger.

G. RAM KUMAR, Career Excellence

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Love on the lineThat's my suspicionWhen I see her in your eyesLove underminedNo ammunitionI don't want to love you paralyzed

DIANA ROSS, "Love on the Line"

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SUSPICIONS amongst thoughts, are like bats amongst birds, they ever fly by twilight. Certainly they are to be repressed, or at least well guarded: for they cloud the mind; they lose friends; and they check with business, whereby business cannot go on currently and constantly. They dispose kings to tyranny, husbands to jealousy, wise men to irresolution and melancholy. They are defects, not in the heart, but in the brain; for they take place in the stoutest natures; as in the example of Henry the Seventh of England. There was not a more suspicious man, nor a more stout. And in such a composition they do small hurt. For commonly they are not admitted, but with examination, whether they be likely or no. But in fearful natures they gain ground too fast. There is nothing makes a man suspect much, more than to know little; and therefore men should remedy suspicion, by procuring to know more, and not to keep their suspicions in smother. What would men have? Do they think, those they employ and deal with, are saints? Do they not think, they will have their own ends, and be truer to themselves, than to them? Therefore there is no better way, to moderate suspicions, than to account upon such suspicions as true, and yet to bridle them as false. For so far a man ought to make use of suspicions, as to provide, as if that should be true, that he suspects, yet it may do him no hurt. Suspicions that the mind of itself gathers, are but buzzes; but suspicions that are artificially nourished, and put into men's heads, by the tales and whisperings of others, have stings. Certainly, the best mean, to clear the way in this same wood of suspicions, is frankly to communicate them with the party, that he suspects; for thereby he shall be sure to know more of the truth of them, than he did before; and withal shall make that party more circumspect, not to give further cause of suspicion. But this would not be done to men of base natures; for they, if they find themselves once suspected, will never be true. The Italian says, Sospetto licentia fede; as if suspicion, did give a passport to faith; but it ought, rather, to kindle it to discharge itself.

It is marvelous how ingenious and plausible suspicion is. It has a kind of genius of its own for finding apparent justification. In chance, particularly coincidence, it has a great ally. Every day warns us to beware of circumstantial evidence. It can of all things be one of the most misleading. But suspicion loves it and eagerly seizes on it and puts it to the worst possible use. The suspicious people all understand. Often, when they believe evil of others on account of circumstantial evidence, they are suddenly confronted with the truth that exposes the folly and unkindness of their own thinking. Do they profit by the lesson? Usually, no. The next time their suspicions begin to work they are eager to cooperate and to become its victims.

JOHN DANIEL BARRY, "Being Suspicious", Reactions and Other Essays

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Suspicion, seemingly ferreting out and exposing the weaknesses and the evil deeds of others, is really in itself an exposure. It exposes the mind and the character working so insidiously and diabolically, ugly in themselves and conserving ugliness and trying to match it with reality. And yet most suspicions are unreal, even those that seem to find verification. In nearly every instance there is a difference between suspicion and confirmation, usually a wide difference. And often where there is apparent confirmation it is not confirmation at all. There are people who are so certain their suspicions are sound that there is no convincing them of the truth. They prefer to keep themselves.

JOHN DANIEL BARRY, "Being Suspicious", Reactions and Other Essays

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When you are a child, there is joy. There is laughter. And most of all, there is trust. Trust in your fellows. When you are an adult ... then comes suspicion.

PETER DAVID, Tigerheart

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Suspicion is a heavy armor, and with its own weight impedes more than it protects.